EyeOnBI.org is part of an effort to return Beth Israel Deaconess to its founding principles and ensure that the administration is putting the interests of patients, workers and community members first. Read more

Non-profit hospitals have a trust with the communities in which they operate to use resources wisely and efficiently, to make their financial dealings as transparent as possible, and to put the needs of patients first. In exchange for playing a responsible role in our communities, non-profit hospitals receive large tax breaks. Tax-exempt hospitals have a responsibility to use resources wisely, because the vast majority of hospital funding comes from taxpayer dollars.

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center has carried out a series of business decisions that waste resources, cloud the hospital’s financial reporting, and undermine its commitment to patient-centered care.﻿

BIDMC has agreed to pay $99,787.75 in penalties for employing an individual that Medicare’s Inspector General alleged the hospital knew or should have known was excluded from participation in Federal health care programs including Medicare. The BIDMC employee, who worked at BIDMC from 2006-2009, was excluded following a “felony conviction relating to health care fraud.”

Former Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center employee Richard P. Webbhas been sentenced to 3 ½ years in prison after pleading guilty to stealing more than $1 million while an employed at the hospital's Ear, Nose and Throat Center. According to federal officials, during the period between January 2006 and April 2009, Webb deposited checks made out to 170 Beth Israel Deaconess patients and vendors into his own bank account and stole medical equipment -- including hearing aids -- and returned the items for cash. Webb has also been ordered to pay more than $1 million in restitution for his crimes and faces up to three years probation following the completion of his sentence.

A practice assistant at the Ear, Nose and Throat Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center will plead guilty to charges of medical theft and embezzlement. Federal officials allege that during the period between January 2006 and April 2009, BIDMC employee Richard Webb deposited checks made out to 170 Beth Israel Deaconess patients and vendors into his own bank account and stole medical equipment -- including hearing aids -- and returned the items for cash.

A physicians' group at Beth Israel Deaconess filed a civil suit against Bank of America in May 2009 for allowing Webb to submit the checks for payment into his personal account. Click here to read the coverage in the Boston Globe.

If convicted, Webb would face up to 10 years in prison and over $2.1 million in fines.﻿

John T. Collins, a “trustee for life” of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and former member of the hospital’s Board of Directors, has been subpoenaed in connection with New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s investigation of Bank of America’s purchase of Merrill Lynch. Cuomo is in the process of subpoenaing Collins and others to determine whether bank officials deliberately withheld information from shareholders and whether directors of Bank of America protected the rights of shareholders. BIDMC Overseer Robert Jaffe stepped down from the Board of Overseers of BIDMC in March 2009 following concerns raised by 1199SEIU and is under investigation by the SEC.

Former Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Overseer Robert Jaffe has been charged with securities fraud, after being accused of earning as much as $150 million by steering investors toward Bernard Madoff. Robert Jaffe resigned from the BIDMC Board of Overseers following concerns raised by 1199SEIU in February.

An important part of the mission of the healthcare workers union, 1199SEIU, is to be an industry watchdog and ensure that resources are being used to protect patient care, increase healthcare access and improve hospital jobs. To this end, 1199SEIU regularly conducts studies of hospital funding and spending practices. When 1199SEIU discovered that BIDMC Needham had overcharged Medicare, it notified the hospital’s board of directors, after which the sum was repaid.Read the letter to the BID-Needham and CareGroup boards.

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February 24, 2008: Hospital, Town Close on PaymentAfter being taken over Beth Israel Deaconess, BID-Needham went seven years without paying for its fair share of city services.﻿

February 16, 2008: Changing High-Rate Bonds is CostlyBIDMC’s parent company paid millions of dollars to bankers and lawyers in a questionable bond restructuring deal, incurring costs that could be passed on to patients and taxpayers.﻿